MCP82 expected in Q1

Details of Nvidia's next AMD chipset have made an appearance over at Expreview and it still looks like Nvidia is playing catch up with AMD, although as we still don't have the full details of AMD's RD890 and RS890 chipsets, so it might be too early to draw any conclusions.

There will be two versions of the MCP82, the S1 and S2, if the details on Expreview prove to be true. What the two have in common is support for AM3, AM2+ and AM2 processors, integrated graphics with DX10 support, Hybrid SLI PureVideo HD and CUDA support, as well as ACC overclocking support.

Other features includes HT3, integrated Gigabit Ethernet, six SATA ports with RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5, up to 12 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, DVI and D-Sub display connectivity, although we suspect DisplayPort will also be added to the list and 7.1-channel HD audio.

What makes the two differ is that the MCP82-S1 offers 3-way SLI via one x16 and two x8 PCIe slots, while the MCP82-S2 is "limited" to standard dual card SLI via two x8 PCIe slots, although you can opt for going with a single x16 PCIe slot if you only have a single card. Both chipsets will also support three x1 PCIe slots/devices.

Nvidia is expected to enter mass production of the MCP82 in January next year with board availability sometime later in Q1, although considering the delays with the Geforce 9300 and Geforce 9400 chipsets, we're not going to nail this down as solid dates.